game of thrones

The Original Game of Thrones Pilot Had Talking White Walkers

Photo: HBO

Ahead of the final season of Game of Thrones arriving this April, the Huffington Post’s Bill Bradley made an excursion to Texas A&M’s Cushing Memorial Library. It’s where George R. R. Martin has been sending copies of his work for years, and where Bradley discovered a copy of the original, unaired pilot for HBO. While hardcore fans are well aware of the original pilot’s trash-fire status and may have seen another version of the script floating around online, this library-catalogued version has plenty of interesting tidbits. For instance, there’s some potentially fiery Cersei foreshadowing with the feather left in the Stark family crypt, and Joffrey somehow sucks even more.

But another thing Bradley found on the cutting room floor that feels especially disappointing is the entire language that was created for the White Walkers. Bradley even spoke with David Peterson, the show’s language specialist, who said the demonic beings were initially meant to be quite chatty, using a language he dubbed “skroth.†Apparently “they tried it, and it just wasn’t working out, so they abandoned the idea.†But if you want to hear a clip of the icy chatter that could’ve been haunting your dreams for the past decade, Peterson gave them an audio clip.

The Original Game of Thrones Pilot Had Talking White Walkers